An FIR has been lodged against former district judge, Syed Taqeer from Anantnag district of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K). The judge reportedly resorted to inflammatory speech while addressing a gathering in the area. He was reported to have said, “I have been told that the forest department is closing your roads. Now you have my permission and if any of them (forest employees) comes again chop their hands and feet and tell them that NC’s nominated candidate has given you the permission.” As per the videos of news channels that have emerged since this incident on March 30, the judge had recently joined the party National Conference (NC) and was campaigning for them. He served as a senior judicial officer before joining NC.
Anantnag goes for election on May 6, 2019. This particular seat, one of J&K’s six Lok Sabha constituencies has remained vacant for almost three years now.
The comment received flak from media channels and various outlets.
NC had tweeted, “We have seen the video of Syed Tauqeer Ahmad, JKNC segment in-charge Kokernag. The party does not endorse this sort of language on these sorts of threats. Syed Tauqeer has been spoken to and advised to exercise more care when choosing his words. We have been assured by him that this was a momentary lapse in the heat of the moment and will not be repeated. We hope the matter is allowed to end here.”
DFO Anantnag, Feroze Ahmad Chat, said that Chief Conservator Forests (South) has taken up the issue with District Election Officer (DEO) Anantnag.
As per the region’s popular newspaper Greater Kashmir, an FIR-No. 7/19 U/S 116, 506, 153 RPC against the former sessions judge at Police Station Larnoo”. Greater Kashmir also reported that the district administration was investigating the contents of the video in which the leader is heard making these statements.